THE CELLAR YIELDED NOTHING IN THEIR SEARCH BUT MOULDY RUBBISH AND ANCIENT COBWEBS.
Frontispiece (Page [111])

A SKIPPY DARE MYSTERY STORY

PRISONERS IN DEVIL’S BOG

BY

HUGH LLOYD

Author of

The Hal Keen Mystery Stories

ILLUSTRATED BY

SEYMOUR FOGEL

GROSSET & DUNLAP

PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

Copyright, 1934, by

GROSSET & DUNLAP, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

PRISONERS IN DEVIL’S BOG

CHAPTER I
ON THE TRAIL

When Skippy Dare entered the big office building he found himself in an enchanted realm. He had never before visited one of these commercial palaces and he gazed about him in speechless awe. He found the revolving door so delightful that it seemed like some freakish entertainment in an amusement park, and he indulged himself with the giddy sensation of going around and around in it until a uniformed elevator starter brusquely ordered him out.

Instead, he went in.

Observing the rather ornate cigar and candy booth, he invested in a gooey chocolate bar which he ate while studying the alphabetical list of offices. He was deeply impressed with this imposing directory and experienced a thrill of triumph when at last his searching eyes discovered the name, INTERNATIONAL DETECTIVE AGENCY—7-721-728.

He was now on the trail, he told himself, though, to be sure, the least false move might prove fatal (a phrase which he had read in a detective story) for the eye of the starter was still upon him and he did not look the more kindly on Skippy because of the liquefied chocolate which now decorated the border of the boy’s mouth. His spirit mounted when he had attained the safety of a gorgeous elevator where every thrill of its dizzy ascent brought him nearer to the famous detective agency’s offices.

Skippy, you must know, longed to be a great sleuth. He had lately read in a newspaper of the rounding up of a gang of counterfeiters by the famous Carlton Conne, head of the International office. That was the spark which brought about the certainty that apprehending criminals was the career which a kindly fate would offer him.

It must be understood that there was some color of reason to this bizarre choice of a vocation. He had grown up on the waterfront among characters sufficiently dubious. Few detectives, however great their prowess and renown, had come into so much personal contact with the lawless element of the river front as had Skippy. A motherless urchin since infancy and lacking paternal care for a period in which his father had been unjustly jailed, his forced association with this motley crew had given him a remarkable insight about people in general.

That Skippy’s father was at last liberated and his good name restored is not a part of this narrative. Suffice it to say, that the hapless man did not long survive after his liberation. He left his young and lonely son to the tender mercies of an aunt who lived on the east side of the great city. And, though Skippy was destined to have many narrow escapes in the course of his spectacular career, perhaps the narrowest of all was his escape from being put in an orphan asylum.

Like many great men he was denied the benefit of an early education. Mrs. Kinney, weak in finances but strong in resolve, triumphed over the Board of Education, and Skippy was given working papers which conferred on him the inestimable privilege of earning his living.

So we find him stepping out of the elevator on the seventh floor of the mammoth office building whistling blithely, yet distinctly conscious of the long trousers (his first) which were such an integral part of the new six dollar suit he was wearing. His aunt had parted with this enormous sum only because of the inauguration of his business career.

On the door of room 721 was the magic word ENTER and Skippy paused with his hand on the knob, giving himself a delicious moment before making the grand plunge. It may be that he fully expected to see a handcuffed burglar or two when he opened the door. But no such thrilling sight awaited him. There was nothing more startling than a richly furnished waiting room at the end of which sat a pretty young lady.

She peered over her gleaming mahogany typewriter desk and paused in her typing with an air of bored expectancy.

“Well?”

“I gotta—eh, I wanta ... see ... Mr. Carlton Conne,” Skippy stammered.

She extended her hand as if by force of habit and said wearily, “You have a letter to deliver?”

“Nope. I—I wanta see Mr. Conne.”

“Oh, you can’t see Mr. Conne. He’s a very busy man. What do you want?”

“I wanta job.”

“We don’t need any boys now.” The young lady yawned discreetly. “If you want to leave your name and address we’ll send for you if an opening occurs. Did someone send you here?” she asked, handing him a slip of paper and a pencil.

“Nope. I bin wantin’ to work for Mr. Conne since I first read about him in the papers. I wanta learn from him how to be a regular detective like him. That’s the kinda job I want.”

At this naïve confession the girl laughed while Skippy, embarrassed, but still persistent, stood waiting. “So lemme see him?” he urged.

“No, certainly not,” the girl answered a little tersely. “I told you that Mr. Conne is a very busy man and he’s a very important man—if you know what that means. He doesn’t see boys. If we should need an office boy, we can send for you,” she added with an air of finality.

It was a crucial moment to Skippy. He gave a furtive look toward a closed door, beyond which, in some holy of holies, he imagined the great Carlton Conne to be seated. He visualized that shrewd mouth and those keen eyes which he had seen pictured in the newspapers at the astonishing climax of the famous Hawley murder case. But there was no hope. Skippy Dare was baffled by a mere girl at the very threshold of the lion’s den.

Suddenly the door opened and a trim looking young man emerged. It was not the great Carlton Conne. Very casually, it seemed, he closed the door and leaned against it.

“He one of ’em?” he asked briskly.

“Oh, no,” said the girl.

“Well, I wish you’d get in touch up there with the principal, or one of the teachers or somebody, and see if they can’t round up two or three of the kids who were run down. They ought to be able to identify one or two of the gang in that stolen car. According to the wop that keeps the banana stand, there were a bunch of ’em coming out of school when the car ploughed through. There must be at least two who could make some identification. The chief wants to get at least two of ’em down as soon as possible.”

“I’ll see what I can do, but if the two who were run down were the only ones that could identify....”

“Well, you know the chief; he wants what he wants when he wants it. Even if their necks were broken he’d expect ’em to remember whether or not they saw a machine gun in that car. So that’s that.”

The girl seemed listlessly tolerant. “I’ll get in touch with them as soon as I come back from lunch. Will that do?”

The young man nodded and the door closed behind him. Skippy too departed, thoughtfully, hopefully, and with machine guns booming in his active brain. Gangsters, a stolen car! The International was on the trail of something.

The question uppermost in his mind was—how long a time would the typist remain out at lunch? He hurried down the hall, then darted into the shadow of a stairway from which vantage point he could keep his bright eyes on the International Agency’s door.

There was no doubt of it now—Skippy too was on the trail of something.

CHAPTER II
CRASHING IN

It was only a matter of seconds when the door of the International offices opened and the pretty typist stepped into the hall. Her high heels clicked briskly along the tiled floor and she looked neither to the right nor left, but hurried straight to the elevators.

Skippy, meanwhile, had backed down farther into the shadow and was standing on the landing, his slim body almost rigid against the cool wall. There was a moment’s silence in which he stood tense, listening, until at last the metallic clang of the elevator door opening and closing echoed down to him.

He relaxed immediately and his face crinkled in a smile. With a weather eye on the landing above and the landing below he hastily removed his coat and tore from his new white shirt a goodly strip of the muslin. This had the effect of setting his collar and tie somewhat awry but he hadn’t time to worry over that detail. He was too busy improvising a presentable sling in which to rest his left arm. He had a momentary impulse to bandage his head also, but he was too true an artist to overdo the thing.

Be that as it may, luck was with him, for a moment later, when he presented himself at the International offices, he found a small group of men, presumably detectives, talking earnestly in the reception room. One glance at Skippy and two of the men hurried forward to open the door just beyond.

“Here y’are, kid—this way,” said one, smilingly. “You’ll see a door to your right marked Carlton Conne—Private—that’s where you’re to go. Mr. Conne wants to see some of you kids.”

Skippy grinned amiably.

He was not afraid, as he trudged manfully into the holy of holies to confront the famous head of the world-renowned detective agency, whose picture he had so many times seen in the newspapers.

The great detective was not an awe-inspiring spectacle. He sat in his shirt sleeves, his chair tilted back and his feet resting on the desk. He was a stocky, middle-aged man with a bristly moustache and a crisp, aggressive look. Also he was smoking a long black cigar (Skippy soon learned that this was a fixed habit with the man) which he dexterously moved from one end of his mouth to the other as he talked. When he listened, he had a way of tilting it at an upright angle which gave him a very shrewd and sophisticated air. It was this attitude that captivated Skippy.

“Well,” he said in his gruff, yet kindly manner, “you’re one of the kids that got in the way of that stolen car, eh? Your arm’s busted, eh?”

“No sir,” Skippy answered promptly with unabashed frankness. “My name’s Skippy Dare an’ I just wanted to get in here—kind of—so—so I could talk to you. But....”

Carlton Conne brought his feet down from the desk and stared. “But the sling—what’s it for?”

“That typewriter girl,” said Skippy rapidly, “she said I couldn’t see you about a job—that you didn’t need nobody.”

“You mean you talked to Miss Purdy, our reception clerk?” asked the detective with an enigmatic scowl.

“Yeah, I guess that’s who it was. She was in that first room out there with the big soft rug an’ she was pretty all right, but she was cranky an’ wouldn’t lissen. I tried to tell her I wanted a job right away an’ be a detective an’....”

Carlton Conne lifted his feet from the floor and set them back again on the desk. He shifted the cigar about in his mouth three or four times, then interposed: “So you got in here under false pretenses, eh?” Before Skippy could answer, he added, “What put the sling idea into your head?”

“While I was talkin’ to the—to Miss Purdy, a feller come out an’ said about the stolen car an’ all an’ how you wanted the kids that was run down so’s you could talk to ’em. So right away I thought about the sling an’ I sneaked into the hall an’ hid on the stairway till she goes out for lunch. Then I fixed the sling from the taila my shirt.... I’ll be good at disguises, Mr. Conne—that’s why I know I’d be a good detective.”

“Oh, you do, eh?” A mirthful gleam lighted the detective’s eyes, but his face was wrinkled into a scowl. “I suppose your other disguise today consists of working papers, eh? You can’t be more than fourteen.”

“Gee, how’d you guess!”

Carlton Conne looked at the boy sharply. “S’pose you’ve been blowing in all your spending money on cheap detective magazines and going to these rotten mystery thrillers, eh?”

“Nope, I don’t like them magazines, Mr. Conne. An’ I don’t like mystery thrillers ’cause I ain’t so dumb that I don’t know those things couldn’t happen in real life. Gee, I can only go to the movies once in a while an’ when I go I like to see somepin’ that makes me laugh. Since my father died I don’t get no spendin’ money ’cause my aunt’s terrible poor an’ she says I gotta be glad she can even lemme sleep an’ eat.”

“And she had to put you out to work?” Carlton Conne tilted his cigar thoughtfully. “And you decided you wanted to be a detective. Why?”

“I always wanted to be a detective,” Skippy answered unabashed, “ever since they railroaded my father. When they let him out I wanted to be one more’n ever an’ when he died an’ I come back to lookin’ for my aunt I almost was sent to Reform ’cause I got hungry an’ went into a restaurant an’ ate a whole lot more’n I had the money to pay for. So anyway they found my aunt an’ she took me from the station house an’ promised to take care of me. But all the time since, I been thinkin’ how if I was a detective I’d know the difference between a kid that was bad and a kid that was hungry. Gee, I know crooks like anything, Mr. Conne, so that’s another reason I’d make a good detective. A bunch of ’em lived ’round me when I was on the barge waitin’ for my father to get outa jail. River pirates an’ all! They’re my special—my specialty!” he bragged.

“And ‘Reform’s’ your special fear, eh?” Carlton Conne asked, blinking his eyes.

“Yeah, I was scareda that like anythin’,” Skippy admitted with a shudder at the memory. “When my father was on trial I shivered in my boots afraid they’d send me there.”

Carlton Conne brought his feet down onto the softly carpeted floor and pulling up his chair, scrutinized a letter that lay open on his desk. After a moment’s silence he glanced up at the boy and swiftly surveyed him.

“Suppose I were to tell you that I want you to go to Reform School!” he said enigmatically.

“Huh?” Skippy asked, wide-eyed.

“Sit down!” Carlton Conne said briskly. “I want to talk to you!”

Skippy did as he was told.

CHAPTER III
A BARGAIN

Carlton Conne took the letter in his hand and manoeuvered the cigar back and forth in his mouth. At length he said, “Don’t be scared, kid. I want you to go, but not for anything you’ve done—it’s for me!”

Skippy gasped. “Gee, you mean you’re gonna lemme be a detec——”

“Listen, kid,” the man interposed kindly, “get that detective idea out of your head until you’re—well say, twenty-four years old anyhow. You have to learn, kid, and it takes long, hard years—it’s just another kind of school. But right now I can use a kid like you—you can be of some use to me. If you do your work right—keep your eyes open, your mouth shut and remember everything, I might consider you for the job as office boy at fifteen dollars a week. In the mean time, I’m to have you sent to the Delafield Reformatory where you’re going to play the part you almost had in real life—a boy unjustly sent there and a boy who’d make a break for freedom at the first opportunity.”

“Then—then you ain’t gonna send me for real!” Skippy stammered joyfully. “I’m just sorta gonna play de—detective?”

“You’re going to help me!” answered Conne with the hint of a smile on his face. “You’re going to play the part of a reform school kid as I told you before. And I’m counting on you to play it with the same kind of energy that made you sling up your arm so that you could get in here to see me. That’s why I’m going to trust you to do this thing for me! You’ve got ingenuity—know what that means, kid?”

“Yeah,” Skippy smiled, “it means havin’ swell ideas that go through.”

“In a measure, yes. Anyway, you’ve the idea and you have ingenuity, whether or not you know what it means. But the question is, can I count on you not to let anyone know (except those whom I authorize to keep in touch with you) who you are, nor the part you’re playing? You may have to play it a month, perhaps longer—I can’t tell you how long, kid. Think you could play it without betraying your game by a look or a word?”

“Gee, Mr. Conne—gee, is it sorta dangerous like? I mean I can do that about keepin’ my mouth shut an’ all—I learned that when my father got in trouble—nobody could make me tell a thing. I mean will it be dangerous if I did tell? Not that I would—honest, Mr. Conne!”

“That’s what I thought, kid. I wouldn’t have asked you otherwise. And as for its being dangerous,” said Mr. Conne tipping his cigar so that the lighted end stood dangerously near his nose, “I wouldn’t allow you to do it if it was. Of course there’s bound to be a minimum of danger in anything of this kind, but we’ll prepare you for that. If you stick and keep your mouth shut there’s nothing to be feared. One of my men will be on hand as soon as the conditions warrant it. If your aunt consents, I’ll assume full responsibility for you.”

“Aw, my aunt don’t care so long’s I ain’t no expense to her. I gotta terrible appetite, Mr. Conne, an’ she says I eat her out of house an’ home an’ besides she wants back the six dollars she paid out for my suit. She wants it to pay on insurance, she says.”

“Very well, kid—she’ll have it. After I get through telling you a little more of this job, you can go home and get her and bring her down here to me. I’ll talk to her and if she’s agreeable, I’ll give her your first week’s salary. She knows your needs better than you do, I guess.”

“Yeah,” said Skippy amiably. “Aunt Min’ll save for me, she says, so’s I’ll have some money in bank when I grow up. She said if I got a job she’d give me money for carfare an’ for a little spendin’ money.”

“She can do that after you’ve done this work and are working regularly in this office. Just now, while you’re temporary, I’ll pay you your expenses and give your aunt your salary. How’s that?”

“Sure, whatever you say, Mr. Conne,” Skippy answered happily. “You pay me more when it’s sorta extra work, huh?”

“That’s the basis on which all our men work here, kid,” the detective grinned. “When your time is on the company, naturally your expenses are too. But leave that to me—I’ll see that you have enough to eat in the way of chocolate even if you do leave half of it on your chin.”

Skippy grinned and reached for his handkerchief. When he had rubbed off the smear, he looked up. “Will you tell me some more about this job?”

Carlton Conne nodded and smoothed out the letter on his desk. “This is a report from one of my men who was on a case in Chicago,” he was saying. “To let you know more fully about this job I’ll read part of this report: ‘Ran across O’Reilly here in Chi,’ he says, ‘and he tells me that Dean Devlin is suspected of helping to spring a kid by the name of Tucker from the South End Reform School here. They picked the kid up in Wheaton and when brought back to Chi he told, under pressure, that a reverend-looking gentleman whose description fits the Dean to a “T” visited the South End Reform a little more than a month ago and propositioned him. The kid was bent to beat it and the Dean gave him some dough for a getaway.

“‘Anyway, out of this money, Tucker was told to bribe a guard and the Dean arranged the night of the escape, etc. Tucker said it was soft—the Dean was on the job in a closed car and took him to a house in what looked to be a nice part of the city. It was a pretty swell flat and the kid got everything he wanted in the way of eats, but he was kept a prisoner along with two other kids his own age who, it seemed, were also under the Dean’s protection. They too had crashed out of different reform schools under the reverend-looking gentleman’s expert supervision.

“‘Now it seems that Devlin’s idea was this: each kid was kept on at the flat till he found a job for them in some distant city. Then he saw to it that the kid got there. And so within a month, Tucker saw the other kids go. Then Devlin told Tucker that he had a job for him out in Montana, and that very night he was going to drive him as far as Alton where he could board a train absolutely safe from suspicion.

“‘They started after dark and Tucker said it wasn’t long before he got drowsy. He thinks he must have fallen asleep for the next thing he knew he felt himself falling against something and then he seemed to fall right out of the car and whirl through the air. Next thing he knew he was in the water. The car had gone down and he knew that he’d go down too, not being able to swim. He paddled furiously with his hands and looking up on the bank he saw the Dean standing there looking down. Tucker was just about to call to him when a car drove up and Devlin got in it and was driven away.

“‘Evidently, the Dean was afraid that Tucker hadn’t survived the accident and being himself confessedly nervous of the police (that being the reason for his generous interest in reform school boys) he thought it best to get away as quickly as possible by hailing the first car that came along.’”

“Gee, an’ what did poor Tucker do then, huh?” Skippy asked excitedly.

Carlton Conne smiled. “Fortunately for him, he had been thrown clear of the car and into shallow water. Just when he had resigned himself to a watery grave, he thrust his legs out and found that his feet touched bottom. You can bet that he didn’t lose any time in scrambling up the high embankment to safety.”

“An’ did he let that Devlin know that, huh?”

Carlton Conne studied the letter before him and shook his round head. “No, he couldn’t. You see he had only seen the street and the house itself at night. After all, he had been imprisoned for a month and both the street and the house looked just like a hundred others in Chicago. Devlin had driven him to and from the house in such a hurry that he never had the chance to see where he had been living. He decided to get as far away from Chicago and the police as he could. But he was picked up in a place called Wheaton, anyway.”

“Boy, what luck!” was Skippy’s sympathetic exclamation.

“Seeing it from your point of view—yes. From my point of view, it’s fortunate that Tucker lost out, for it has warmed up a trail that’s been cold too long. Devlin has been under cover a couple of years now. O’Reilly, who is an inspector on the Chicago force, said they’re anxious to find out where the other two kids are that the Dean helped to crash out of reform schools. Well, Dick Hallam knows that I’ll be interested to know why, for I got some old scores to settle with the Dean and like a good detective he got the Dean’s scent and has trailed him to New York. This morning he learned that our reverend-looking friend has applied for a permit to visit the Delafield Reform School next Friday. That’s the reason, kid, that I want you to be there when he shows up.”

“Hot dog, Mr. Conne! I been dumb not to see what you meant before. Gee whiz, you want me there to trap him like, huh?”

“I want you to be there to help me to prepare the trap, kid. None of my men can palm themselves off as kids and it seems that Devlin has been playing up to kids only. That’s why you’re going to Delafield. You’re going to help me find out why he’s been acting so generous when I know that he isn’t the type of man to do anything like that without there being money in it somewhere. Dean Devlin never did anything for nothing. And so you’re going to put yourself in his way when he makes that visit on Friday—I’ll see to it that you have every opportunity. What’s more, you’re going to fall in with any plans he may make for you.”

“Boy, it sounds terrible excitin’, Mr. Conne!”

“Not dangerously so,” the detective assured him. “One of our men, Dorcas is his name, will either go up with you or be up there on Friday and so be on hand if you need him. You’ll have no cause to worry—you won’t be alone at any time if you do just as you’re told. But there won’t be any real danger, kid—I wouldn’t let you into this if there was. Dean Devlin is a notorious swindler and blackmailer and though he can cause plenty of excitement when he’s on the trail, I’ve never heard of him laying a hand on anybody. He’s after money, not people.”

“Gee whiz,” Skippy said stoutly, “I wouldn’t be afraid anyhow!”

“That’s why I’ve taken an interest in you, kid. All you want is nerve—courage enough to go through with your part, and keep your mind and eyes on all that Dean Devlin does and says. You’ve got a job and I might as well warn you that how well you do it will determine your permanent employment by this company. In other words, it’s to be your entrance exam, so you better try to pass it!”

“Gee, will I pass it!” Skippy cried exultantly. “You’ll see how I’m gonna pass it, Mr. Conne!”

“That’s the talk, kid,” the detective said with a half-smile. “And when Dean Devlin is where he can’t take any more money from my clients or anybody else, I’ll talk to you about staying on for a regular job.”

CHAPTER IV
JOHN DOE

In the Juvenile Court next day, Skippy was duly arraigned and sentenced. An International Detective Agency man posing as an irate merchant pressed a charge of petty larceny against John Doe, orphan, no home and a native of the city of New York. The evening papers carried a small first page story on this original John Doe who was about to spend his first night of a four year sentence in the Delafield Reformatory.

Meanwhile, Skippy was aware that his role of John Doe, thief, had become almost too realistic to be comfortable. His morning wait in the courtroom had seemed interminable. The heat was oppressive, the court procedure tiresome and he felt not a little regret that he had not urged Mr. Conne to have his aunt come and give him the bit of encouragement he needed to go on with his part in the reformatory. He thought of his dead father, of Big Joe Tully who had lost his life saving the Airedale, Mugs, which he had given to Skippy. And Mugs too was gone, killed by an auto.

Not that he felt in the least fearful nor doubted his ability to go through with his strange role. He merely felt a little lonesome and wished that he might look out over the sea of faces that crowded the courtroom and see his Aunt Min’s among them, smiling her encouragement. But his aunt was at home busy with her sewing that morning, quite content with the money that Carlton Conne had turned over to her and satisfied that the great detective would see that her nephew was safe and sound.

Skippy had to be content with the presence of Dick Hallam, Carlton Conne’s man, notwithstanding the fact that he was supposed to be prosecuting him. Hallam, however, was better than no one at all for when the occasion permitted, he flashed a significant look at the boy.

He spent the afternoon in an ante room and Dick Hallam, blond, tall and about twenty-eight, played “rummy” with him. Also, he had too much to eat, including ice cream and candy and cold drinks and at about four o’clock Carlton Conne came in.

“All set, kid?” he asked with that half-smile that Skippy was beginning to like.

“And how!” the boy grinned, feeling cheerful immediately.

“He’s been acting like it’s a picnic, boss,” Dick Hallam interposed gaily.

“Fine,” said the detective. “You want to keep it up, kid—you’ve nothing to fear—not a thing! Everything’s been arranged, and I don’t think you’ll have to spend more than a night or two at Delafield. Meanwhile, what time you do spend, you’ll have someone watching close at hand so never feel you’re alone. The warden and a few trusted guards know of our little game, but of course you’re to speak to no one about it unless you’re spoken to first. Now—you remember all the signals?”

“Yes sir—everythin’!”

Dick Hallam grinned. “He’s just nervous about riding up with that rough neck gang that’s been sentenced today, boss. Especially one tough kid named Nickie Fallon who got seven years for trying his hand at a hold-up and carrying a gun. Some character, that kid.”

“I know,” Conne said understandingly, “that’s the only disagreeable part of this job, kid. But I warned you what the company would be like.”

“Aw gee, Mr. Conne, I ain’t afraida that. I was just wonderin’ if they’d be the kind of guys what start a fight on the way an’ if they did what would I do, huh?”

“How would you act if you were riding up with that bunch to start a real sentence, eh? Well kid, get yourself in the state of mind that it is real and act accordingly.”

Skippy did just that. About six o’clock a court attendant led him out to a closed car. Four boys ranging from about his own age to seventeen years sat inside and eyed him sullenly as he crowded his slim body among them to make the fifth passenger on the back seat. Two detectives followed and took the chairs before them; another detective sat ahead on the seat beside the driver.

“Well, if it ain’t John Doe—the kid hisself!” a hoarse voice whispered beside him.

Skippy looked up and saw a drooping mouth and black eyes almost too bright—Nickie Fallon. Despite an inward shudder, he nodded and smiled.

“That’s me,” he said simply. “Got enough room?”

“Nah, but that’s all jake. Might’s well get used to crowdin’.” Then, after a pause: “Say, you John Doe, on the level?”

Skippy gave a sidelong glance at the detectives to see if they noted this whispered conversation between Nickie Fallon and himself. Apparently they didn’t, and he gave the boy another smile.

“Anyways, they slipped you four years, eh? Three years less’n me.” There was another pause after which Fallon whispered, “They ain’t keepin’ me two days if I can take it on the lam. How about you, kid?”

Skippy nodded again, feeling rather foolish as he did so. However, he could think of no other course to pursue, and instinct prompted him to hold his tongue until he was sure of himself.

“Ain’t the gabby kind, eh?” said the other. “Well, that’s the kinda pal I like. Say, if they don’t put us near each other up there, I’ll raise the dust—see? I wanta pal like you.”

Skippy stirred uneasily. Was Nickie Fallon going to be an unlooked-for factor in this strange play?

CHAPTER V
A FRIENDLY FACE

The Delafield Reform School was situated not far from the New Jersey state line. Therefore, the route over which the boys were taken was through a part of northeastern New Jersey, first crossing the great bridge which bears the magic name of George Washington.

It was upon entering the vast span that Nickie Fallon made known to Skippy his resolve. After that he lapsed into a long silence, looking past his new-found pal and out upon the gleaming concrete lanes that flanked them on both sides. His too-bright eyes seemed to roam through space and for a moment his gaze rested on the giant cables that stretched between sky and water like monstrous birds poised for flight.

Skippy had no doubt but that Nickie’s thoughts were also on flight. The detectives, however, seemed not to be cognizant of it, for they were laughing and talking in low tones and apparently easy in mind about the safety of their charges.

Dusk was settling and the broad plaza on the New Jersey side of the bridge was resplendent with the last rays of the setting sun. Very swiftly they left it behind and whisked down under a broad concrete arch which brought them to a highway practically devoid of traffic.

“Ain’t many people travelin’ our way,” a boy commented on the farther side of the seat. He was no more than sixteen, red-haired and with small blue eyes.

“Dippy Donovan’s his name,” Fallon informed Skippy immediately. “He drew a year for wreckin’ the principal’s office in school. Twict he done the same thing so now he’s got his bit. I don’t see doin’ a stretch for anything like that. At least I got some dough outa what I done—how about you?”

“Yeah,” Skippy murmured. And in order to divert the conversation from himself, he asked, “Who’s the kid next you an’ who’s the one ’long-side him?”

“Greek pickpockets—Shorty an’ Biff; don’t ast me their last names! I can’t pronounce ’em.”

Skippy grinned and turned his head away looking off into the dusk. He was thinking that everything had gone fine so far and his behavior must certainly have impressed Nickie, for that youthful transgressor seemed to have accepted him at face value as one of his own kind.

It was during these reflections that Skippy noticed the detective sitting up in the seat beside the driver. He was a thin, lanky sort of man with hollow eyes and just at that moment he was glancing at the boys. Presently his gaze rested on Skippy and without warning he pursed his lips significantly and a look flashed from his eyes that the boy immediately understood.

One of Mr. Conne’s men!

He turned his head away again so quickly that, under other circumstances, Skippy might have been inclined to consider the look as merely a figment of his imagination. But in this instance, he knew that he was right and that the detective had deliberately caught his attention to assure him of his helpful presence there as Mr. Conne’s representative.

Well, it was helpful certainly, and tremendously reassuring to Skippy. Mr. Conne had kept his word so far and the play gave great promise of a successful conclusion. The boy was happier now and no longer felt alone in his new venture. He had a staunch and dependable supporter and all was well!

The shadows were lengthening and a lone bird winging swiftly homeward for the night, looked dark and small against the feeble light on the distant horizon. Talk lagged, then ceased altogether, and when night enfolded them in one vast black shadow no sound could be heard save the monotonous hum of the engine and the soft swish of the tires upon the concrete road.

After a little while they turned off into a dirt road. The powerful headlights gleamed out over deep ruts and in places the sandy soil lay in little mounds, causing the car to bump and flounder about from one side of the road to the other.

“Can’t slow down too much,” the driver said to the detectives. “I’m due back at ten and it’s after eight now.”

“It’s O. K. with us,” said one of the men sitting in back. He nodded at the man beside the driver. “You’re not afraid of being thrown out either, are you, Dorcas?”

“If I am I can pick myself up again,” came the reply. The speaker turned and though it was too dark to see very clearly, Skippy thought the man smiled at him.

So Dorcas was his name!

Glad of that additional knowledge, Skippy put from him any lingering fears. He was confident that nothing would mar Mr. Conne’s well laid plans. Dorcas would always be there at Delafield.

They were still bumping along at a pretty fair speed when the engine emitted peculiar sounds. The driver made some comment but did not stop, saying that it was probably due to the gas which he was trying for the first time.

The engine continued to “act up” as the driver called it, but he did not lessen his speed. They seemed to bump in and out of the ruts faster than ever. Suddenly the car lurched forward tumbling them all about. And, while Skippy strove frantically to keep himself from falling entirely off the seat, they lurched again.

The driver yelled, the brakes ground and for the fraction of a second the powerful car seemed to whirl. Skippy felt himself whirled along with it, his head struck something and amid the ear-splitting shouts and screams from the boys and the men, there came the sound of breaking glass.

There was a sickening crash after that, but Skippy did not hear it.

CHAPTER VI
A SUSPICION

Skippy’s head throbbed painfully and there was a soreness all over his slim body when he tried to move. His ears buzzed and his eyes opened with difficulty upon a world that was dark and confusing. Voices, low and hoarse, seemed all about him and he had the sensation of rapid motion that added materially to his discomfort.

It came to him gradually that he was neither lying down nor standing up, but that he was in a half-reclining position with his head resting on someone’s lap. Also, he discovered that he was again in a car and that they seemed to be speeding along in the dark the same as before.

His head was being jounced up and down sending sharp pains through his body, and when he felt he could no longer stand it, he stirred. A familiar, hoarse voice spoke directly above him.

“Feelin’ kinda rocky, pal?”

Skippy squinted but it was too dark to discern anything. Nevertheless, he sensed Nickie Fallon’s bright eyes looking down at him inquiringly.

“You, Fallon?” he asked weakly.

“Yeah. Your head’s been banged up an’ I been holdin’ you on my lap.” Then, reassuringly: “But you’ll be O. K., kid—don’t worry.”

“It’s dark—terrible dark....”

“Yeah, we’re travelin’ without no lights. I’d keep kinda quiet if I was you. It ain’t gonna be long ’fore we’ll be where you can tumble in bed an’ sleep till your head’s better.”

“He’ll have nice eat—eh?” came a query in a slightly foreign accent. “Us will too, eh?”

A man’s deep, sonorous voice from up in front answered in the affirmative. Nickie Fallon bent closer to Skippy’s buzzing ears and explained, “That guy’s name’s Barker an’ the one drivin’s his pal, Frost. They’re our pals from now on. Say, what a break they gave us!”

Skippy was deeply puzzled. He couldn’t seem to make it out at all. “Those Greeks,” he asked wearily, “didn’t I hear one of ’em just now?”

“Shorty and Biff? Sure. They’re along. Dippy was scared an’ wouldn’t come. But I knew you was regular so when you went out me’n Shorty brought you ’long seein’ you wasn’t hurt bad. Glad, huh?”

“How ’e be glad when you ain’t tell ’eem!”

Fallon laughed. “S’right, Biff. Here I’m thinkin’ the kid knows all about it.” He leaned over Skippy again: “I didn’t have no chance puttin’ you wise on the way up an’ I go an’ forget you been out cold since we hit the ditch.”

Skippy felt a chill up and down his spine at this reminder. “We hit somethin’—so it was a ditch, huh? Gee! I got hurt then, huh?”

“Yeah,” Fallon replied laconically, “but not’s bad as them bulls. The three hadda take it—the driver couldn’t put up no fight. Dippy was bruised too, but not so bad but what he could say no when we told him he could come with us an’ beat his rap. So Barker says not to bother ’cause there wasn’t no time for arguin’ an’ another car might come along.”

“Barker—Frost—” Skippy asked puzzled, “they’re your friends, huh?”

“Friends! I’ll say so! Cheese, ain’t it a friend that gets us away so easy as this? Lissen, kid—it shows how friendly when I’m waitin’ in the cooler this afternoon an’ along comes this Frost an’ he says he gets in by sayin’ he’s my cousin comin’ to say so-long. Then he says how he heard the long stretch they gimme an’ that he don’t think they gimme no break. So then he talks like a Dutch uncle an’ says how he an’ his pal Barker can give us a break. We don’t do nothin’ he says. Him an’ Barker’ll find out somehow what time we’re gonna take the ride to the jug. An’ they do.”

“Oh!” Skippy groaned as the car bumped his head painfully.

“Feelin’ all right, kid?” Fallon asked sympathetically.

“Yeah,” Skippy answered half-heartedly. “It’s just the bumps that make my head ache.”

“We’ll soon be there,” called the sonorous voice which Skippy recognized as Barker’s.

He raised himself painfully from Fallon’s accommodating lap and sat upright in the seat. The Greek named Biff was sitting on his left and on the end of the seat sat his partner Shorty. Both were smiling at him anxiously, particularly Biff who had a rather set mirthfulness in his round face.

Fallon obligingly crowded himself into the other corner of the back seat in order to give Skippy plenty of room. “Anyways, you must be feelin’ a little better wantin’ to sit up,” he said peering over at him. Suddenly he lowered his voice and whispered, “Say, kid, we ain’t gotta worry now ’cause Barker an’ Frost’s gonna see us through an’ how! Look what chances Frost took!”

“What?” Skippy inquired, aware that a feeling of foreboding had taken possession of him.

“Chances!” Fallon continued hoarsely. “Didn’t he find out from one of them guards what time we was leavin’ an’ didn’t he hang ’round the court house till he sees the bulls’ car drive up!”

“Gee!” Skippy said, feeling incapable of saying anything more.

“Sure! So like I’m sayin’, Frost waits his time an’ he goes an’ gets talkin’ to the driver indifferent like. It’s the same driver of the car we come up in—see?”

Skippy was beginning to see only too well, but he did not say so.

“Anyways, the driver says after a while he better go in an’ see if they’re set with the kids. Frost says sure, so long. He’s dressed in overalls like a mechanic—see? When the driver goes in the building, Flint quick opens the hood an’ shoots some stuff what he’s got in his pocket, in the oil. Jest enough so’s to make it get workin’ by the time we hit the bumpy road—see?”

Skippy stared.

“Well, there ain’t much more. Frost strolls ’round the corner an’ he quick gets in this car with Barker sittin’ there like he is now. It’s a cinch! They start off ahead ’cause the driver’s already told Frost what road he takes for Delafield. They wait behind some trees down that bumpy road an’ when we blow along they give us a coupla hunnerd feet ahead an’ follow without no lights. So when the engine goes bad on the driver an’ we hit the ditch, it’s more’n Frost an’ Barker expect.”

“Yeah,” Frost spoke up in a loud, raucous voice. “We expected they’d be stalled and standin’ around lookin’ for help so that when we cruised up soft and easy with no lights on, it’d be a cinch to cover the bulls and get Fallon and whoever of you kids that wanted to scram, into our car. But so help me, it was easier than that!”

“Yeah,” Fallon echoed, seeming to enjoy his role as narrator. “When Frost and Barker come along, there we was ditched—the bulls knocked silly an’ the driver so goofy it was a cinch for Frost to stick him up and knock him cold when he tries to keep us from scrammin’.”

“Frost used a gun, eh?”

“Sure! But he didn’t have to shoot. An’ then that sap Donovan kid wouldn’t come when he had that break. He said we’d be caught an’ we’d get a worse stretch. Aw, he was just yeller! Anyways, it was lucky that us guys didn’t get it like the bulls. Only you was out, kid. Well, we’re on our way, so we should worry, hah?”

“Where we goin’?” Skippy asked as calmly as he could.

Frost and Barker were deep in some conversation of their own and seemed to be paying no attention to their charges. Fallon leaned close to Skippy’s ear and whispered, “Between you an’ me, kid, I think it’s a hideout Barker’s got somewhere in the country. We been ridin’ an hour now. Barker’s boss—see? I think he’s done a coupla stretches hisself ’cause Frost told me on the Q. T. that Barker’s got feelin’ for kids that get a break like we got an’ so he helps ’em crash out whenever he can. He’s gonna keep us under cover awhile till things quiet down an’ then he’s gonna get us out west to some friends. I ain’t s’posed ta tell though. Frost says Barker wants to s’prise us.”

“And you say Frost—Barker’s your friend too, huh?” Skippy asked timidly. “You known ’em long, huh Fallon?”

“Nah,” Nickie answered readily. “I ain’t never laid eyes on Frost till in the cooler this afternoon.” And in a hushed voice, he added: “I ain’t had no good look at Barker yet, ridin’ like we are without no lights. I first hear his voice when I get in this car—he just waited for us when he sees how things was. We should worry when we got friends like them?”

Friends! Skippy put his hand to his head, hoping for the best, but fearing the worst.

CHAPTER VII
THE HOUSE FORGOTTEN

The question pounded in his head more insistently than the pain he was suffering. Did not this whole unlooked-for episode of Frost and Barker smack too much of Dean Devlin’s tactics? And could it not be possible that Devlin might change not only his name but his tactics also? After all, he concluded, it was but a step from Barker to Devlin and from the Delafield Reformatory to the Juvenile Court. The man Devlin that Carlton Conne had told him about was certainly clever enough to keep a step ahead of the police every time.

Skippy felt more hopeless about it all as the minutes sped by. Here they were going farther and farther away—heaven only knew where; and, though he was aware that due to the accident, Mr. Conne could not but think him blameless, he felt that in a measure he had failed. He hadn’t any business, he told himself, to strike his head and fall unconscious—it was his job to stay conscious!

A DINGY SQUARE ROOFED HOUSE LOOMED UP BEFORE THEM.

The fact that Dorcas, a trusted and experienced detective, had also been knocked senseless seemed not to lessen this feeling of guilt. Skippy was steeped in remorse because an unkind Fate had seen fit to have Fallon carry him away from Dorcas’ side, away from the influence that was Mr. Conne’s and which spelled safety to him.

And yet, at that moment, he was not afraid, notwithstanding the fact that he felt that Barker and Dean Devlin might be the same person. He was merely puzzled as to how he should get word to Mr. Conne if it was going to be as Fallon said, that Barker would keep them under cover for a month.

He decided that he was feeling too sick to worry about it yet. He longed only to get in a bed and sleep and let the morrow take care of itself. And if Barker proved to be Devlin, he could only hope that Fortune would smile upon him and help him to succeed despite the mischance that had cut him off from Mr. Conne’s help and the International offices.

A long silence prevailed in the car. Shorty and Biff were sound asleep on each other’s shoulders and emitting soft nasal sounds. Nickie Fallon was hunched in his corner in a half doze and up in front Frost and Barker were deep in whispered conversation.

The road was rough but Frost handled the car expertly, driving it as if he knew the bad spots by experience. He had only his parking lights on now and they were speeding along with surprisingly little sound from the engine.

After a time they entered a narrow, wooded lane and Frost seemed to pick his way more carefully. Skippy was quick to note that the trees, in places, interlaced and during their entire journey through that section, one could stretch one’s arms at either side and touch the overhanging branches. For at least an hour, he guessed, they hadn’t passed a house.

“We come up back roads, I betcha,” Nickie Fallon whispered suddenly as if guessing his thoughts. “Looks like we’re miles from nowhere. This guy Barker knows his hide-outs, hah?”

“Mm,” said Skippy. “Gee, we wouldn’t know howta get back home if we wanted to, huh?”

“Frost says we can’t an’ what’s more we ain’t to try, in case we get thinkin’ we’re smarter than him or Barker is. He says kids like us ’ud run right into the bulls an’ that ’ud make it bad for them—see? Him an’ Barker’d do a long stretch if we squealed that they helped us crash. So Frost says they ain’t takin’ no chances on lettin’ us think we can get anywheres alone. They’re gonna treat us swell s’long as we’re stickin’ under cover till they help us go west. So we gotta get used to stayin’ quiet a little while—see?”

“Yeah,” Skippy answered, “I think so.” He could feel Nickie Fallon looking at him curiously. Suddenly he felt the boy move closer to him.

“Say, lissen, kid,” he whispered, “d’you feel funny ’bout this Frost an’ Baker?”

“Gee,” said Skippy, not a little startled, “I—I dunno.... I—whadda you mean, huh?”

Fallon’s lips almost touched Skippy’s ear. “Listen kid,” he confided, “I ain’t been doin’ what I done, an’ not learnin’ that guys don’t do nothin’ for love. How come, they been takin’ all this trouble for some kids they ain’t never laid eyes on ’fore today, hah?”

“Whadda you s’pose?” Skippy whispered timidly.

“We ain’t tippin’ off Shorty or Biff, but between you’n me, kid, I think these guys got some job for us what they can’t do themselves—see? A little job, mebbe.”

“Yeah, an’ if they have, it’s all right, huh?” Skippy retorted making a brave effort to measure up as one of Nickie’s kind.

“Sure, only if it’s bigger’n we can do an’ we get grabbed—we’re outa luck. That’d mean double time. Aw, it ain’t no use worryin’. If they let us put the feed bag on regular an’ give us bunks, it’s worth doin’ ’em a favor.”

Skippy nodded but did not answer. He was too intent on watching the number of turns that Frost had made within the past few moments. They had already made three off the wooded road and now with the fourth one they were in a dense woods and proceeding very slowly along a road little wider than a footpath. Then suddenly they rolled into a clearing and stopped. Frost chuckled and switched on his headlights.

A house, square-roofed and dingy, loomed up before them. Its shingles were so devoid of paint that it was impossible to say what color they had originally been painted. Blistered and peeling from long years of neglect and with its shutters closed like so many pairs of sleeping eyes the structure presented a picture of abject loneliness.

Unkempt grass and weeds grew up to the high stoop; there was no porch. Behind the house and a little to the left, Skippy glimpsed a barn that was also in disrepair. Notwithstanding this, he supposed that Barker and Frost parked their car in it.

“No bulls’ll turn you kids up here,” Frost said, as if reading their thoughts. He turned a leathern-looking face toward Skippy, smiling out of shrewd eyes. “This house usta be in the center of a village till a fire burned the town out. Then the railroad decided to run twenty-five miles away so the folks left it flat. This bein’ the only house left they let the woods grow up ’round it and now, after seventy-five years, nobody knew about it, ’cept an old nit-wit hermit that put me and Barker wise. Last year he died so there ain’t nobody now’ll bother you kids, much less the bulls.”

Barker turned to them and in the half-light his long, grave face and staring light eyes contrasted strangely with the dark wisps of hair that straggled from under his hat and down on his forehead. But it was when he talked that Skippy was startled, for the man’s voice was so solemn and sonorous that it was eerie.

“Now boys,” he was saying, “you see how safe you are here. Keep it in mind and don’t get the idea that you can manage your own freedom better than I can. For one thing, it would get Frost and me into trouble if you were picked up and if you weren’t, you’d get in trouble yourselves, because this place is almost all surrounded by swamps and you might not find your way out. When I say the coast is clear to ship you west—all right. You’ll come out of this house then, and not before!”

There was a warning note in his voice that sent a chill up and down Skippy’s spine. He wished his Airedale, Mugs, had lived to be with him at a time like this. Shorty and Biff exchanged a few words in their native tongue and suddenly Nickie Fallon’s hand stole over and coming in contact with Skippy’s wrist, he grasped it tightly.

CHAPTER VIII
TIMMY

Even from the outside one could sense the desolation of the house. It took little imagination to visualize the large, sprawling rooms downstairs and the small, stuffy rooms upstairs weighted down to a point of suffocation by the flat tin roof. Cobwebs, slugs, every scurrying, every crawling thing that thrived in dampness and gloom must thrive in such a place, Skippy thought.

He was glad of Nickie Fallon’s friendly hand on his arm as they ascended the high stoop. And he was considerably cheered by the oily, smiling faces of Shorty and Biff as they all followed in the wake of the two men. He had somehow forgotten that these three lawless boys would have been repugnant to him under other conditions. Now he welcomed them as old companions, and their nearness was comforting in this chill, lonely moment.

“Metal doors ’n everythin’,” Nickie whispered in his ear. “Locks outside too, hah? What’s out is out an’ what’s in is in!”

They entered a stuffy vestibule and passed into a long, dark hall. At the far end of it beside the stairway was a lantern standing on a broken stool. It gave a feeble light at best, but now it sputtered and flickered like some dying thing and sent out weird shadows that stole up and down the dirty walls.

Barker stood a moment as if listening. Then he turned his grave face to Frost and said, “No sound from upstairs. Timmy must be asleep. Go up and get him. We’ll make some coffee and have something to eat. When you come down put some oil in that lantern.”

Skippy wondered who Timmy was, but soon dismissed the thought in his joy at hearing that they would get something to eat. Nickie, too, brightened up at this announcement and Shorty and Biff made no secret of their delight, but gave vent to several nasal grunts.

Frost hurried back and ascended the narrow, rickety stairway two steps at a time. Barker motioned the boys into a room at his right where he already had a lantern lighted.

“Sit down,” he said abruptly. “I’m going out to the kitchen to make coffee.” Then, without having really looked at them, he stepped into the hall. There was the sound of a key turning in the door outside and suddenly he was back again, passing through the room and toward another door as if he didn’t know the boys were there. When that door had closed behind him, his footsteps could be heard echoing over bare boards, until, after other doors slammed, there ensued a few moments of silence.

Skippy had taken a chair like the rest and now he glanced around the big room. Besides the chairs they were occupying there were two other chairs standing, battered and forlorn, against the shuttered and heavily barred windows. The room boasted no other furniture and no rugs; the floor was thick with dust.

“Well, it’s good there ain’t no more furniture to catch the dust, hah?” Fallon commented humorously as he took note of their surroundings. “Say, I wonder what’s the big idea, barrin’ windows—I ain’t keen on bars. Makes me think we’re in Delafield almost.”

Shorty got up softly and moved his chair close to the others. When his pudgy body was seated, he leaned over confidentially and said, “Mebbe we better in Delafield, eh Neecky?” He shook his round head at his friend Biff, then nodded back at Fallon. “Eet look what ya call phoney the way thees Barker don’ look at us an’ how he bring us here to thees spooky, dirty place, eh?”

“Just what I teenck!” Biff agreed in an undertone. “I get dem creeps—you know? Ever’ting eet should be fun eef Barker an’ Frost fool dem bulls an’ take us keeds from de school—eet should be fun eef they do it because they no want us to do the stretch and feel dis seempathy, eh? But no—they act like we was goin’ to funeral, yes Neecky?”

“Aw, forget it!” Nicky answered. “I’ll admit I ain’t got no yen for this joint myself. But we ain’t where we can say we’d like a nice up-to-date apartment. We gotta be glad we ain’t startin’ no long stretch at Delafield. I got a hunch Frost’s kinda slippery an’ Barker’s a queer bird all right, but what’s that when they’re keepin’ us outa the hoosegow!”

“An’ for thees, Neecky—what we do, eh?” Biff asked, squinting his small, brown eyes.

“I think,” Nicky whispered, “they got a small job for us guys to do—see? Ain’t we all done a job or two for ourselves, hah? So we can do a job for them if they ast us—see?” He turned to Skippy suddenly and asked, “Ain’t that right, kid?”

“Sure!” Skippy answered, conscious of an inward tremor as he said it.

“That’s the kind of talk I like to hear, boys!” came a sepulchral voice from the doorway where Barker stood watching them. He was grave and unsmiling, and save for a certain steely glint in his staring eyes, his face looked not unlike a cold, clay mask.

Nickie Fallon broke the tension with a forced, husky laugh. “You’n Frost give us a break, Mr. Barker,” he said nervously, “we’d be short skates if we didn’t try an’ square it.”

“Of course,” Barker agreed without any enthusiasm.

A silence ensued that to Skippy was tense. Barker continued to stand there and stare, and the boys sat rigid in their chairs until the welcome sound of footsteps was heard coming down the stairs and along the hall.

Frost strode into the big room and in his wake was a tall, fair-haired boy of about sixteen whose appearance was somewhat disheveled. He had a wild expression in his light blue eyes and at sight of Barker a shadow crossed his face.

“I been most crazy barred up in that dark hole since daylight!” he cried. “I thought you’n Frost would never come! Honest, I’ll go nuts if I ain’t let out soon. Over a month an’ two kids’re gone an’ I’m still here! Barker, it’s givin’ me the creeps—honest! It’s worse’n if I stayed in the pen up in Al....”

“I’ve arranged for you to go tomorrow night, Timmy,” Barker interposed hastily. And, nodding his long head toward the new arrivals, he added: “You’ll have these boys to keep you company till then.”

Timmy wheeled about, obviously unaware of the boys’ presence in the room until that moment. He drew a hand across his forehead as if dazed. Then suddenly, in a trembling voice, he said, “More!”

Skippy felt himself trembling too.

CHAPTER IX
TRAPPED

Skippy was destined to remember that night. Whether it was the chill gloom of the house or the nameless dread which seemed to hang like a pall over the wilderness hideout, he did not know. Certainly, everything they said and did gave them a feeling of unreality, as if they were merely moving puppets in a play. He missed his father, as he never had before, and that was saying much.

After their peculiar meeting with Timmy Brogan (as they afterward learned was his full name), Barker gravely invited them to the kitchen for refreshment. They followed Frost through two unfurnished rooms, wading through the dirt and dark until they emerged into a sprawling room running the width of the house and which, like the sitting room, was illuminated by means of a lantern dangling from a hook in the high ceiling.

A small oil stove, battered and rusty, was trying to send up a yellow flame strong enough to boil the coffee. Another stove, a wood-burner, stood back in the opposite corner as if it were trying to hide its antiquity from the boys’ eyes. A sprawling cupboard stood in another corner and in the center of the room, surrounded by broken down chairs and boxes, was a dilapidated table holding several plates of freshly-made sandwiches.

“Sit down, boys,” Barker said simply. “The coffee will be ready in a minute.”

“Seems like I ain’t fed in a million minutes!” Timmy said with bitter complaint. “Since you left me that lousy sandwich when you beat it at dawn, I....”

“Shut up!”

Barker’s funereal voice filled the room for a tense second, then he turned on his heel and walked toward the cupboard in long, determined strides. Timmy grew pale and sat down on the nearest box, reaching hungrily for a sandwich.

Frost chuckled mirthlessly for no reason at all that Skippy could see. Barker took out several thick cups with which he strode back toward the stove and poured the coffee when it was ready. After that they ate, and a strange, silent repast it was with the lantern sending eerie shadows up on the smoke-blackened ceiling and leaving the little group in a semi-gloom about the table.

Skippy ate because he was hungry, but his mind wasn’t on it. He was too confused, too worried at the unexpected turn of events to think of anything else but what had happened and what might happen. Barker made him feel strangely hopeless about this adventure which he had set out upon so light heartedly and which Carlton Conne had seemed to plan so thoroughly. It now appeared that he who had planned on helping to trap Dean Devlin had himself been trapped in a larger web.

That was it—he was trapped!

He looked at the two kitchen windows. They were shuttered and barred like the windows in the other rooms. The door leading out of the kitchen opened onto a shed and Skippy was certain that that too was invulnerable both inside and out. Upstairs, he learned ten minutes later, were three stuffy bedrooms fit for occupation. He was assigned to one of them along with Nickie Fallon and Timmy. Shorty and Biff occupied the room next to them and across the hall was the room in which Barker and Frost alternately slept and watched to see that their young protégés did not triumph over locks and other man-made obstructions and steal forth into the night.

“Ever since I been here, I been askin’ myself—why the locks, if them two guys brought me here outa sympathy?” Timmy whispered to his new room-mates as Frost bade them a chuckling good-night and locked the door on the outside. He retreated to his tumbled looking cot and held his head in his hands wearily while he stared at the lantern hanging above his head. “Take it from me, guys, there’s somethin’ screwy about Barker an’ Frost, an’ you might’s well get smarted up.”

Skippy looked at the decrepit bed in which he and Nickie were to sleep and his heart sank. There wasn’t a breath of air save the occasional wisps of breeze that mysteriously found their way through the chinks in the shutters. He walked to the window and by stooping could look through the bars and see a rising moon casting a flickering gleam of light on water.

“Is it a lake or somethin’?” he asked.

“Lake, me eye!” Timmy answered. “It’s a swamp, that’s what. You’ll see how much when the moon comes up good. There’s only a little back yard an’ then the swamp begins.”

“Say,” Nickie whispered inquiringly, “you got somepin’ on Barker an’ Frost? What’s the matter, anyways?”

Timmy got up and walked over to Fallon. “They got me scared, that’s what! Barker’s terrible—he’s got me scared skinny an’ I’ll tell you guys why!” He tiptoed to the door, listened a moment and then came back. “Did he help you guys crash outa reform?”

Nickie explained that they had not got that far before Barker had reached out a helping hand and gathered them in. While he was speaking they all moved toward the bed and sat down, there being no chairs in the room.

“So he kinda switched the deck with you guys for a change, hah?” Timmy commented after Fallon finished. “That proves what I say about him bein’ a pretty foxy guy, turnin’ a trick that maybe ain’t gonna be so healthy for us in the end.”

“How come?” Skippy asked softly.

“It’s a long story, an’ if you guys ain’t sleepy...” Timmy began.

“Say, lissen,” Nickie interposed, “the kid’n me don’t mind bein’ put hip. I didn’t like the way Barker bore down on you downstairs an’ it give me the hunch mebbe he’s too phoney even for us—see! So come across an’ mebbe we won’t get the short enda the stick.”

“Sure I’ll spiel, but that’s all the good it’ll do,” Timmy said dismally. “We’ll never get nowheres together, take it from me—Barker ain’t lettin’ us! He’ll take us away from here, one by one, and so far the two guys that have gone from here ... anyways, I’ll tell you what I think—Barker’s a killer!”

“What?” Skippy gulped.

They heard the scraping of a lock and suddenly the door swung open. A breeze from the hall blew out the feeble lantern light and they were in total darkness.

CHAPTER X
THE WAY OF DEVLIN

Skippy felt Nickie’s hand on his arm and Timmy crowded up close to both of them. For a second there was no sound, then they heard someone move in the doorway and presently Barker’s voice pierced the darkness.

“What have you been whispering about in here, Timmy?” he demanded.